It's a Cracker, but what cracked?

I had a venture out into Shropshire yesterday to take part in the Cardington Cracker, a race of 9 miles and some 2600 feet of climbing making it the last AM race before New Year. The original idea to do it came more from drunken enthusiasm some months before. A friend of mine is from Cardington and got married there in the summer, a few weeks before the big day in a pub, talk had turned to the wedding location and the local hills. Both the bride and groom suggested doing the Cracker as it was a great race and it starts in the field at the back of the bride's parents house. I agreed and have been reminded of doing that several times since, not that I needed to be, it seemed like a fun idea and I'd even taken in a small recce on the Bank Holiday Monday after the wedding (before assisting in the cleanup operation of several hundred glasses).

Having watched the forecast for a few days before I went expecting rain, sleet and snow only to find a perfectly clear day with high level cloud and the temperature hovering around 3 degrees. The recent wet weather in that part of the world showed though with many regulars declaring it the boggiest they've ever taken part in.

The race started off in field I'd previously been celebrating in on August bank holiday as it's where the wedding marquee was, to see it full with nearly 300 runners and much softer underfoot was a little different to how it looked in August. On a side note, I only spotted one Bowland vest in the field and none from anywhere else particularly local.

The first few climbs are gentle and head out to the first peak, The Lawley. I hadn't done this on my recce and it's far steeper than I'd imagined it might be, over 400 foot in little more than .3 mile according to my Garmin and very slippery. After that it's a good ridge run down to the bottom of Caer Caradoc, the climb for that being more than 700 feet in .5 mile before a fantastic and very very fast downhill into the valley below. The final climbs undulate until Willstone Hill and then it's another steep drop into the valley and a fairly flat 3 miles back in.

I was thoroughly enjoying the run and felt good for the finish, I'd put in a great run, hadn't gone off too quickly (or so I thought) but I suddenly ran out of steam on the final climb to Willstone. It wasn't so much the legs or an injury (I'd pushed through the knee playing up since halfway up The Lawley) but the body just seemed to have had enough and as a result I flailed and tumbled down the hill with seemingly liquid quads not doing much to steady me. The run back in kept reducing to a jog or less while the body and brain weren't talking and what I estimated to be 60, but in reality from looking at the results, probably more than that passed me. I stumbled about a mile before a kind soul from Mercia Fell Runners passed and shouted over to get a tow and follow him in, so I switched the brain off and did just that and I couldn't have been more thankful for it. A disappointing end to an otherwise great race however, it's been added to that list for going back to and doing better next year.

Links;

Info
http://www.telfordathleticclub.co.uk/races/cardington-cracker

Pictures and results in one spot (look out for my Fez atop Caradoc)
http://www.fellrunningpictures.co.uk/cardingtoncracker2012.html

A video of the start
http://youtu.be/VT4ROS4A9rI

TYC